What a tragedy? Over five thousand people killed, over ten
thousand injured and hundreds of thousands suffered after losing their homes
and loved ones.
Then there are some amazing stories too; like a 4 months old
baby rescued from the ruins 22 hours after the earthquake and another man rescued
eighty hours after being buried under the rubbles. There are many more such
miraculous stories too.
Strange are the ways of Nature and yet stranger is the nature
of man. It is interesting to see how different people react differently to such
situations. There are many who out of compassion left everything and rushed to
Nepal to help the needy people physically according to their professional expertise.
Many have and are continuously sending money and donations over there to help
cope with this devastating situation while some others simply sit and talk
about it.
Unfortunately, many opportunists even try to take advantage
of these situations. Many, who do not
really want to help, give some strange reasoning and try to explain every
situation as it suits to them and serves their own interest in some way.
Some Non-Hindus, after seeing some Hindu temples destroyed
during the quake, cheerfully announced that it was God’s way to warn them about
their wrong religious practices.
Some people said that those who were in the middle of the
affected areas but survived and did not get hurt, or those fortunate ones who
were rescued later, is because God is great; that God was kind to them and was on
their side.
Does that mean God was not so great and not so kind to those
who died or suffered? Does He choose and discriminate? At the same time, are we questioning or even insulting the
integrity of those who suffered?
Sadly, I have also received few such ‘WhatsApp’ messages
over the past few days.
One such message said “O’ God! Please send another such quake
to demolish the walls that divide people”.
The person who sent this message probably had good intention,
but it did not sit well with one of my Nepali friends whose family has severely
suffered in his native country. Instead of compassion for loss of his people,
he saw mockery in this message.
Another message said “Occasionally nature sends these
earthquakes to shake and to remind us that this world is just a rented place,
not permanent.”
Isn’t it unfortunate that we think that everything is about us?
That ‘we’ are so important that the nature would kill several
thousand and injure hundreds of thousands just to send a message, a reminder to
‘few of us’; the chosen ones?
Does the whole universe revolve around us?
Where is the compassion?
‘Rajan Sachdeva’
Dnk ji. Do the scriptures provide any answers to why these tragedies occur? Or how to deal with them?
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